Multiple sources, the same fabrication

Shaw's tale of derring-do quickly spread across the web like wildfire on Tuesday, exalted by blogs and news sites alike. Here, the thinking went, was a true sports hero, someone you can't root against no matter what team you actually support.

It all seemed to come from a legitimate news source: USC's official athletics website, which everyone who later covered the story cited and pulled laudatory quotes from.

You expect a school's official website to slant its coverage favorably, but it'd never post a totally bogus article, right?

Wrong, apparently.

USC sports information director Tim Tessalone told Mashable on Thursday that, as far as his staff knew, the story was legit.

"The blog post was based on Josh’s account and wasn’t posted until it was vetted Sunday and Monday by a variety of people through a variety of ways," Tessalone said in an email. "Unfortunately, every source turned out to be fabricating the same story the same way."

That original story, which has since been deleted from the website, breathlessly recounted how Shaw leapt from the balcony and suffered two high-ankle sprains but summoned the strength to crawl over to the pool and save his drowning nephew, "despite the intense pain in his legs."

"That was a heroic act by Josh, putting his personal safety aside," USC coach Steve Sarkisian said in the article. "But that's the kind of person he is."

The story's eventual debunking underscores the complicated and changing dynamic of who releases news in the digital age — often the very people that news is about. But it's not like we haven't seen this sort of thing recently.

Look no further than Manti Te'o's fictitious dead girlfriend, who was covered across every medium, including a glowing profile in Sports Illustrated, before being exposed as a hoax in January 2013.

Serious questions about a big-time NFL prospect

"We are extremely disappointed in Josh," Sarkisian said in a release USC put out on Wednesday saying Shaw's story was pure fiction. "He let us all down. As I have said, nothing in his background led us to doubt him when he told us of his injuries, nor did anything after our initial vetting of his story."

Shaw isn't just another player, though. The cornerback is a fifth-year senior who was named a captain for the Trojans this year. Last season, he started all 14 games and made 67 tackles, four interceptions and a blocked punt. He returned the blocked punt and one of his interceptions for touchdowns.

Standing 6-foot-1 and weighing 200 pounds, Shaw has good size for an NFL cornerback and is a major pro prospect. CBS Sports ranked him third among all cornerbacks eligible for the 2015 draft.

Now NFL scouts have to question the character of a player who invented a fib for the ages, lying to coaches to cover up — well, to cover up something. Whether that impacts where he's selected in next spring's NFL Draft remains to be seen. Talent — of which Shaw has plenty — has a way of eclipsing other concerns in these situations.

But first there's the matter of whether Shaw will even suit up in his final season for the Trojans. Sarkisian said on Wednesday that Shaw had been suspended indefinitely from all team activities, but seemed to leave the door cracked open for Shaw to work his way back into the fold.

"I believe Josh will learn from this," Sarkisian said. "I hope that he will not be defined by this incident, and that the Trojan Family will accept his apology and support him."

So how the heck did Shaw actually get injured?

Shaw's lawyer, Donald Etra, represented Rihanna after she was assaulted by Chris Brown in 2009.

Image: Danny Moloshok/Associated Press

After USC walked back its original story on Wednesday, attorney Donald Etra released a statement on Shaw's behalf. In it, Shaw admitted to lying and asked for forgiveness. But he did not answer what has become the million-dollar question: How exactly did he actually get hurt, prompting his lie in the first place?

"That’s a question for Josh or his lawyer," Tessalone, the sports information director, told Mashable via email on Thursday.

Etra did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for further comment. But Shaw is named — though he isn't a suspect — in a police report from Saturday night, according to multiple reports.

Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Lillian Preciado told TrojanSports.com, a website that covers USC athletics but is not affiliated with the school, that officers on Saturday responded to a complaint of a woman screaming for help at the Orsini Apartments complex about four miles from USC's campus. Witnesses then described a man matching Shaw's description "leave from the balcony" of a third-floor unit. His girlfriend also reportedly lives at the complex and said the man described matched Shaw's appearance.

Police said nothing was stolen on Saturday, but a window had been pried open, according to TrojanSports. An LAPD spokeswoman confirmed to Mashable on Thursday that Shaw has not been named as a suspect in the police report.

Meanwhile, Etra told ESPNLA on Wednesday night that Shaw was hurt while falling from a balcony at the Orsini Apartments, but did not go into detail.

"My understanding is that there is nothing criminal about this whatsoever," Etra told the site. "There is no criminal activity whatsoever."

Again, more questions than answers.

Did Shaw fall off a balcony or jump off? If he jumped off, why did he jump off? What was he doing at the apartments?

Whether those questions are ever fully answered publicly remains to be seen. But USC's strange week took another turn on Thursday morning when running back Anthony Brown abruptly quit the team and accused Sarkisian of being racist in an Instagram post he later deleted.

"Quite honestly I'm shocked," Sarkisian said after Brown quit the team on Thursday.

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